A/N: Hello again! Thanks to everyone who read/favorite/reviewed the first chapter, sorry it was so short! This one's a bit longer, hope you like it!
John shook himself out of his stupor, and said "Sorry, who are you? And what, exactly, are you doing here?"
The man smiled jovially and said "I'm the Doctor!" Then the smile faded, and he drew his eyebrows together in thought as he continued "And honestly, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here. The TARDIS has been in a bit of a mood lately, rough trips and bumpy landings and mucking up the machinery... Where am I, exactly?"
John stammered out "L-London, yeah. 221B Baker Street? You're in our flat...somehow." the Doctor grinned, and muttered "oh really..." Sherlock took this moment to finally move, and turned away from the box reluctantly to face the Doctor.
"Doctor, is it? You mentioned a... a TARDIS?" He looked extremely confused, and the Doctor exclaimed "Yeah! The TARDIS! It's an acronym, stands for Time and Relative Dimension In Space. I suppose you would call it my ship..." He placed a hand on the box and grinned at it, then turned to face Sherlock again. "Well, when I say ship-"
John broke in, "That's a ship?" pointing to the box and smiling at the pure ridiculousness of the situation.
"No, it can't be, it's just a 1962 London Police Box." Sherlock said, still squinting at the doctor, lips pursed slightly.
The Doctor shook his head and said "Nope, it's definitely not just a 1962 police box. It's my box. And She is so much more than just a ship. Really, that's such a limited term." he grinned, looking quite pleased with himself.
"But- how can that be a ship?" John asked. "It looks barely big enough to fit you!" The Doctor grinned and opened his mouth, as if about to say something, then apparently thought better of it, his eyes wandering off to some memory that left him looking sad and -in John's opinion- rather lonely. Sherlock huffed, and said "Doctor, who are you?!" obviously struggling to keep his voice down. John glanced at his friend, and was surprised to see his face looking like it always did when confronted with a tough problem. But that rarely ever happened when Sherlock met someone, usually he could deduce everything about them down to what they had for breakfast within a few minutes. But now he just looked bewildered.
"I already told you, I'm the Doctor." He said calmly. "And, if you'll excuse me, I need to attempt to fix the TARDIS here. With any luck, I'll be gone soon, and you two can just forget I was ever here! You'll be right back to your normal life, normal timeline..." with that he pushed open the door and slipped inside, letting out a few more tendrils of smoke.
John looked to Sherlock, who was still staring at the spot where the mysterious Doctor was just a few minutes ago. "Sherlock, what was that?!" He shout-whispered, unsure of if the Doctor could hear their conversation from inside the box...ship...thing. Whatever it was, it was silent as a tomb now. Sherlock shook his head and said "I don't know..." John opened his eyes wide, looking once more at the anomaly that somehow managed to stump the great Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock sat down in his chair and stared out into empty space, thinking hard.
"He seems to be in his mid thirties, very athletic, if skinny, and seems to run around quite a bit, judging from the state of the jacket." John put his hands in his pockets and sat on the arm of his own chair, listening to Sherlock ramble off his deductions. Usually John tuned them out somewhat, however brilliant they were, but now he paid rapt attention. "He's been traveling, obvious, used to travel with another person, female, but they've left recently. He's seen war, but long ago, long enough to grow adept at keeping up a jovial façade. He works machines frequently, and knows them very well, but..." He narrowed his eyes and put his hands on his head, a look of frustration taking over his face. "He doesn't make sense! He looks to be thirty, yet he has no scars, or stretch marks on his skin, no anything! By that time in someone's life, they've bound to pick up at least a few scars or marks or something, but he has nothing! It's like he was born a week ago as a thirty year old! But his eyes... they're so old! Plus all that nonsense about spaceships and timelines, he talked about them as if he dealt with it every day!" the door of the TARDIS opened again and the Doctor stuck his head out.
"Talking about me, are you?" He grinned and then pointed at Sherlock. "You, sorry, what's your name?"
"Sherlock Holmes." The Doctor's jaw dropped open and he laughed with surprise.
"Sherlock Holmes! THE Sherlock Holmes! I don't believe it! Of all the things!" He stepped out of the TARDIS and stuck his hand out. Sherlock took it, and the Doctor shook his hand eagerly. "It is a pleasure to meet you sir, I've heard so much about you!"
"I...see." Sherlock glanced at John, who hid a smirk from Sherlock and his new fan.
"And actually," The Doctor said "This is perfect, because I need a bit of help with the TARDIS, I was wondering if you knew anything about transteleportion dimensional physics?"
Sherlock replied "No, and I doubt if it even exists." only slightly haughtily. The Doctor scoffed. "Of course it exists, I just never bothered to learn it. Oh well, you're the smartest man on Earth, I'm sure you can figure it out. Mind giving me a hand?" He moved towards the Box and grabbed the handle, then looked back at Sherlock expectantly. John, afraid of getting left behind in the excitement, as happened with his flatmate sometimes, cleared his throat loudly to catch the Doctor's attention.
"Oh! Yes! You must be the famous Dr. Watson then! Pleasure sir!" He shook John's hand as well. "Both of you, come on!" when they hesitated, he turned to face Sherlock, his voice turning surprisingly serious. "I really do need your help, and it shouldn't take long, but if I get stuck in 21st century London- which I'm guessing is what this is, you never told me the year- I'll go insane. I was never meant to stay in one place, you see, and I have other work to do. So...please."
Sherlock nodded slowly, still slightly baffled, and the Doctor smiled again. "Wonderful! Well, then, Allons-y!" he pulled the door open and stepped into the box, leaving the door ajar for the two visitors.
Sherlock stepped into the box and froze- again. God, that was annoying.
He forced himself to move and gripped the handrail that should not have been there. "Doctor..." he ventured. Just then John stepped in.
"Bloody Hell!" He whispered.
"Hey! No cursing, she doesn't like it." The Doctor shouted from across the console. Sherlock looked up at the huge room he was in, that should not have been there.
"This... this is... impossible!" He whispered. "It's..."
"Bigger on the inside, I know. Time Lord technology." The Doctor grinned at them, enjoying this immensely. He always did. Sherlock ran out of the machine, and stared at it from the outside. And ordinary old police box. He ran around the sides, running his hand over the painted wood, his breath coming in short gasps. This. Was. Not. Possible! He ran to the front of the box, and stuck his head in, looking at the enormous room, then stepped back out, at the seven foot tall box. In, out. In, out. He stormed into the box and right up to the Doctor, who was no longer grinning, and indeed, seemed to be slightly worried.
"You." Sherlock growled, grabbing the Doctor by his jacket. "What the hell is this? Have you drugged us? Are you working for my brother? Moriarty? Magnussen? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!"
"Easy, mate, easy! C'mon, this is my best jacket!" the Doctor estranged himself from Sherlock's grip at the same time as John stepped in and pulled Sherlock backwards, muttering "Calm down! Stop it!" However, John had a peculiar wild look in his eye as well. The Doctor turned his gaze to Sherlock, looking slightly wounded.
"I don't work for anyone, Mr. Holmes. I tried it once, on a moon in the Belphora System, AC-09008, they called it. A beautiful place, they've got the most interesting trees, they actually grow sideways!" As the man continued his ridiculously long story, Sherlock drew his eyebrows together in an irritating mix of confusion and anger and fear. Who the hell was this man- if he was even that- and how could he be so calm about this insane situation?
"So then, what do you do, exactly, that takes you to these... places?" John asked as calmly as he could, keeping a firm grip on Sherlock's arm, who seemed to John to be on the verge of a psychological meltdown.
"Oh, I'm just a traveler." he said vaguely, then ducked underneath the console and began fiddling with something out of view. "Well, Mr. Holmes, care to come take a look? See what you can make of this?"
The Doctor's voice floated up to the two men, sounding oddly disembodied. Sherlock was still flustered about the man, who jumped from one crazy subject to the next with barely any pause, as if it were normal. But By God, he was Sherlock Holmes, the world's only Consulting Detective, and he'd be damned if he couldn't calm down and figure it out.
He released the banister, straightened his suit jacket, and walked over to where the Doctor had disappeared, regaining his composure somewhat. The Doctor was kneeling down in some hideous nest of wires, and pointing at things with an odd looking instrument. Sherlock got down on his knees and looked at the panel.
"What do you make of that?" The Doctor asked, and Sherlock peered closer, moving wires around and poking at receptors and invertors and all sorts of things, yet he only recognized about half of the things spilling out of the console, the other half, he assumed, must be alien or something. Well, he was on an alien spaceship, but wouldn't that mean...?
Pushing the thought away, he said "I think you might have a connection problem..." Sherlock pointed to a few wires. "Wear and tear indicating that they used to run closely to each other, therefore they must have been attached to these receptors here and here" he pointed. "But now one of them is attached to a completely different receptor, and the rest aren't attached at all. These wires have the rubber casings cut, which would allow some energy to escape, if it wanted to, and the bare wires running in through here would have sufficient charge to attract electricity out of the wires, bringing unnecessary and obscene amounts of power to this adaptor, and leaving almost no power whatsoever for...whatever that is." he pointed to a round button that was clear, but oddly carved, like an insect's compound eye.
While he delivered the deductions, he studied the Doctor discreetly, trying to figure him out. And now he was left with only one option, only one possible solution: The Doctor was not human. As Sherlock was having this slightly concerning revelation, the Doctor was staring at the wiring with shock, muttering to himself.
"You're completely right! Everything you said was spot-on, I never would've seen that!" Indeed he wouldn't have, the mess of wires was so confusing. "And that button is the igniting fuse reactor, by the way, it channels the energy to the engines, THAT'S why the TARDIS wasn't running right! Gosh, what could've happened to her?" He trailed off, putting wires back in their proper places. Sherlock stood up, and after a moment, so did the Doctor, the previously silent TARDIS making noises that would typically come from an engine, and a few that Sherlock had never heard before.
"There we go, happy as a clam!" the doctor exclaimed. Sherlock looked at the doctor, his eyes demanding answers. The Doctor sighed. "Well, I suppose you boys want a bit of an explanation?"
"Uh, yes, please." Said John, who had been standing by while the other two were fiddling with the wires and such, staring in fascination at all the controls. The Doctor nodded.
"Tea, anyone?" he asked. Sherlock and John both nodded, and the Doctor pulled two stools out of seemingly nowhere, gestured for them to sit, and went off to get some tea.
A/N: Thanks for reading, please review to let me know what you think! All constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.